LYFTing you and your business in the Social Media world.

About a month ago, Google+ opened up for business pages. Many businesses both small and large are wondering if they should be investing time in this new platform. Google+ saw an amazing, rapid growth over the summer, earning themselves the title of the fastest growing social network. The problem they have had is holding on to their users. Many people’s unhappiness with Facebook drove them to test drive the new platform, only to leave it shortly after because they felt like no one was using it.
I interrupt this blog post to inform you of the following: the below advice is for business that have nothing to do with the tech industry because there are plenty of those consumers on Google+. They are about the only demographic that is holding on strong. It is their little club. Your Google+ strategy will be very different.

Now that Google+ has opened up to businesses is it worth your business being there? I say yes, but not for the same reasons your business should be on Facebook or Twitter. Currently marketers are flocking to G+ and setting up business pages with few users to interact with. Think about who your audience is. They might not be on Google+, but your competitors are. Use this space to stand out within your industry. Use it has a space to network with them and become a thought leader within your industry.

Secondly, you can use some of the tools on G+ to bring your audience there. Hangouts, for example, are one of the best features on Google+. Use this feature to provide customer service to your audience, behind the scene looks at your company, question and answer sessions, the possibilities are endless.

Finally, Google is search! Search is what brings you business. The long and the short of it is, the more you are active within Google’s space the more searchable you will be. People might interact with your business on Facebook, but they search for things on Google.

Bottom line is that it is one more free tool for you to tell your business’ story, why pass that up? Disagree with me? Leave a comment. I’d love a discussion about this as history is being made.

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Today I discovered Prezi and I think it is going to change my life! That’s a little over dramatic, but I’m really excited about it. I give presentations fairly often in my job and volunteer actives. Earlier this year I switched from Power Point to Keynotes and I thought that was the end all be all. Don’t get me wrong I love Keynotes and how clean and intuitive it is (like all Apple products) but the concept of Prezi just really makes sense to me.

I’ll let Prezi explain exactly what it is:

If you don’t exactly get it from the video watch a few presentations on their web page, it will start to make sense. It is a very creative, non-linear way to organize your presentations. I’m really excited to give it a try. I started working on a small presentation for next week, but it probably won’t be until the New Year that I get to try it out for a large audience.

This is only my first day playing around with it, but here are some of the pros and cons I’ve found.

Pros:
Easy to Use
Makes you look like a great designer
Wonderful transitions
Makes you keep things simple (I hate wordy Power Points, yawn)

Cons:
No built in spell check (we know I need that)
No photo editing ability. You have to do all of that in Photoshop before you import that photo.

Have you used Prezi, what are your thoughts?

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As a social media manager the nuances of what Facebook can and can’t do can either be amazing or the most frustrating experience in the world. My current frustration is with the Facebook Places map. The address in our account is correct, but for some reason the map is about twenty miles off…I have found no other business or help file of people having the same problem. When I try to move the pin, I get the error that it is too far away from the original address. It is just entirely frustrating and if anyone out there has had the same problem, lets discuss!

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Facebook made a BIG hype about a product announcement they were going to make yesterday and frankly it sucked. Let me count the ways it annoyed me.

1. They started ten minutes late…Facebook you are no longer a small start up, buy a watch. You are not entitled to be late because you are Facebook and people will wait for you. It was rude.

2. Mark Zuckerberg babbled for another ten minutes until the viewer count got to 50,000 before actually making the announcement. Apparently 50,000 is the magic number to dispense information too.

3. It was not new products, it was product enhancements.

The three “new” products are enhanced functionality in group chats, a sidebar showing who is online (if your screen is large enough) and finally a partnership with Skype for video chats within Facebook. None of this is new, so why the hype of a big press conference? Furthermore, I question if these products will be successful or useful. The group chat is the only one of the three that I see myself using regularly. The ability to bring more than one person into a chat will be nice. As for the sidebar of who is online, I really don’t want it. I think it was nice that it was a little difficult for people to find out if you were online so that people didn’t bug you without a purpose. If it is very obvious who is online and who is not I think you’ll see more people turning the chat function off. I already know several people who never have it on. That brings us to the final and largest announcement, the integration of Skype on Facebook. I haven’t tried the functionality out yet but in my experience video chatting isn’t all it is cracked up to be. I’ve found it to be a little unnatural and awkward for personal relationships. Business situations seem to work better for me, but maybe this is just me. The good thing about this new feature is that, like most things on Facebook, it is very easy to use. In the past you had to download Skype and create a user name, now that is not necessary within Facebook.

I could be wrong and all of these new features could be wildly popular but I’m a little skeptical….I’d like to see something truly innovative from Facebook that isn’t just a tweek of a product. I’m scared that maybe they’ve just gotten to big to take those risks like they use to.

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For the past few weeks I have been volunteering with Twestival and our event is tomorrow night! Over 150 cities globally will gather together to support local charities. ATLTwestival will be supporting Nicholas House, a local non-profit that has been around for 30 years and helps homeless families reach sustainability. The event is going to be a lot of fun! We have some great host and sponsors.

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If any of you out there admin a Facebook business page you’ll notice that you have the option of giving the page an upgraded look. I just upgraded mine and I LOVE it!

The new look is in response to Facebook Places. If you are a business with a physical location, your customers are now going to be able to check into your location and have their check ins logged on your page. This means check ins are more important than likes. Who cares how many people like your business if they aren’t going there!

The second change that I love is that as an admin I can comment from my own perspective or the businesses. This was a huge road block for me in the past and I’m glad I finally have that option.

Finally the whole look of the page finally reflects the most recent update in the user’s profile. If you are a businesses that uploads a lot of photos you will really enjoy this new lay out.

When you log into you business page it will give you the option to preview and tour the new layout. I think you’ll find the new features really useful.

I’m excited to start to play around in the new layout and hopefully it will be even easier for businesses to communicate and interact with their audiences. If you are using them let me know what you think!

This morning the popular clothing designer Kenneth Cole innocently tweeted the following: “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KC”

I totally understand what they were trying to do and using social media does allow your brand to take a more casual tone. BUT this situation is a little to fresh in everyone’s mind and a little to sensitive. This one little tweet will be costing Kenneth Cole A LOT in damage control. So far they have only posted one other tweet in the their defense, but I am curious to see how they proceed the rest of the day.

This is a great example of how social media can get your brand noticed in the wrong way and how it needs to be taken seriously. If you leave your social media responsibilities in the hands of someone who doesn’t understand your brand or audience you may have a PR disaster on your hands.

Lesson – use political and current event references sparingly/tastefully in social media when concerning your brand. The up side for Kenneth Cole, you will go down in Social Media 2011 history of what NOT to do!